Comic-book characters, Transformers and even the Smurfs have had their cinema moment of late. Next up: Legos.

Warner Bros. is using the toy bricks in an as-yet untitled 3-D movie to be produced in Australia and released in 2014.

The New South Wales state government announced the news Wednesday, saying that the Time Warner studio hired Sydney digital-effects firm Animal Logic for the animation work.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who co-directed the 3-D animated hit “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” are directing the feature-length film and writing its script. “Meatballs” grossed $243 million world-wide.

According to Andrew Stoner, New South Wales acting premier and minister for trade and investment, the production will bring up to 48 million Australian dollars ($48.4 million) into the state, including commitments to industry research, development and training.

Lego products sell in more than 130 countries, and its parent company Lego Group says that on average, every person on earth owns 75 Lego bricks. Laid end to end, the number of bricks sold in 2010 would circle the globe more than 12 times.

Animal Logic will employ more than 200 people to produce the animation for the film that Warner Bros. so far is calling only “the Lego movie,” with no guarantees that will be the final title. “We hope to raise the bar in terms of the look of the movie,” says Animal Logic Chief Executive Zareh Nalbandian.

Mr. Nalbandian isn’t giving much away about the techniques he envisions but says his team will be working with real Lego bricks. “We are going to make it as authentic as possible in terms of being a Lego movie, not a cartoon. The movie will look like it has been photographed with real Lego,” he says.

Animal Logic shot to big-screen success with its work on the Academy Award-winning “Happy Feet.” Warner Bros. set up a co-development fund in 2007 with the company, which produced and provided animation for last year’s “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.” Animal Logic is currently working on the 3-D animation for “Walking With Dinosaurs,” slated for a 2013 release, and on the special effects for Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming drama “The Great Gatsby,” which is also being shot in Sydney.

Mr. Nalbandian says the Lego movie will have a “live action component” but that casting hasn’t begun yet. “That’s about as much as I can tell you at the moment, because the story is under wraps.”